(Is Albayalde qualified to comment on investors and the economic issues of the country? We weren’t informed that the PNP is already part of the economic team.)

Albayalde said labor leaders, especially those from Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), are to blame for the lack of foreign investments in the country because investors pull out their projects out of fear of strikes and protests.

“Propaganda ito eh (This is propaganda). It’s the conditioning of the minds,” he added.

De Guzman passed the ball back to PNP, saying that the real reason why investors are scared is the government’s war on illegal drugs.

He said the PNP was implicated in the tokhang-for-ransom na nambiktima sa isang South Korean businessman na si Jee Ick Joo. The rising criminality, rising incidence of the salvaging of small-time drug pushers are also turnoffs for investors.

On January 2017, the Philippine Daily Inquirer revealed that a police team from an anti-drug unit abducted Jee. The Department of Justice said that Jee was strangled to death in his vehicle, which was parked inside Camp Crame — the PNP headquarters.

Jee’s remains were cremated and his ashes flushed down a toilet. But even if he was already dead, kidnappers asked P5 million from Jee’s family as ransom. /ee

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